Daughter of Wine

Leo

After doing my final checks on the engine to make sure it's running smoothly, I head up to go to bed. Walking past Calli's room, the door is cracked open, with faint music playing. Rolling Stones.

I push the door open and see she's sitting on her bed, leaning against the wall, with her knees pulled up to her chest. She's in an oversized tee, with a short pair of pajama shorts. She sees me and quickly composes herself, giving me a beautiful grin. "Hey, boludo. What's up?"

Despite her best efforts, I can tell she's been crying. 

I sit down next to her and give her a pointed look. "What's going on, mamacita?" 

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She tries to laugh, but her voice cracks and her lower lip trembles. "I'm fine." She squeaks. 

"Come on, Calli." I try. Her expression breaks my heart. "You don't have to keep everything bottled in all the time." 

She takes a breath and squeezes her eyes shut, a single tear tracing down her cheek. "It's fine, Leo. We all have problems. I'm just a little overwhelmed." 

I wrap an arm around her shoulders comfortingly. "Please?"

She sighs into my shirt. "Fine." She throws her hands up in the air and gets up, pacing her room. "Fine!" 

She pulls a paper out from her shirt. "I wrote this when I was eight years old. Aeolus gave it back to me. Nemesis said it was my destiny." 

She reluctantly hands me the paper and turns away, her arms crossed. She's shaking. 

I carefully unfold the paper. It's nothing incredibly impressive. Notebook paper scribbled on with purple crayon. It's written in Spanish. 

I don't know who you are, but you killed my mama. Why would you do that? I am going to find you, and I am going to kill you. You may forget me, and who I am, and what you did. It may take me my entire life, but I promise you, I'm coming for you. 

"That's..." I struggle to find the right words. "That's some dark thoughts for an eight year old." I wonder if Calli still feels that way towards Gaea. Obviously she hates her, but does she really think we'll let her sacrifice herself to kill her? 

Calli scoffs and takes the letter back, folding it carefully. "I'd forgotten about it. Now, I can't stop thinking about it. Nemesis said I'd experience loss like no other. And... she looked like..." She doesn't finish the sentence. Instead, she throws herself back onto her bed and pulls her knees back up to her chest. 

"Who'd she look like?" I ask, putting my hand on her knee in what I hope is a comforting gesture. 

"She looked like me." Calli sighs. "I looked at her, and she was me. How messed up is that?" She laughs, though she looks ready to cry again. "I'm mad at myself for letting Gaea kill my mom. I didn't stop her or anything."

"You were just a kid." I remind her. The thought that Calli wants revenge on herself more than anyone else in the world makes it hard for me to breathe. I thought I blamed myself for my mom's death a lot, but this is a whole new level. It breaks my heart.

She shrugs, tapping her thumbs together. "I did a number on those Romans." She tells me. "I didn't know how powerful I could be, but this morning, when I unleashed the grapevines and madness on the Roman legions, I scared myself. I mean, I can take down whole armies. That's absolutely terrifying."

"You were protecting your friends." I remind her. "You got us out of there safely. If you hadn't, the Romans would have fired on the ship before we could leave."  

"Yeah," She frowns. "Speaking of that." She punches me hard in the arm. "Don't do that to me again!"

"Do what?" I ask, rubbing my arm. She punches hard.